Contenu du sommaire

The Gulf crisis of August 1990. Lessons for the histofian, Robert Ilbert. Just when historians are making the most mistakes, they are being asked from all directions to legitimate current deeds. Avoid the trap of obvious comparisons, of reconstitutive genealogies or causes bereft of their context : that is one of the lessons historians should learn from the August 1990 Gulf crisis before they are too much tempted to give advice.

The Little Entente, France and Benes, François Vejtö. Contrary to a widespread opinion, the Little Entente which united Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia in the 1920s was created not at France's initiative, but President Benes. It guaranteed a status quo for Central European frontiers, an achievement which has become singularly topical since 1989.

The bicycle's three âges in France, Philippe Gaboriau. Appearing in the first quarter of the 19th c, the bike retained for a long time an image limited to the social and cultural elites. Gradually, however, the « bourgeois bike » gave away to the « popular bike », which had its apogee between the 1920s and 1960s and then lost ground due to the emergence of the « ecological bike » in the 1980s. The sociological study of biking practice makes it possible to measure its development as a good reflection of social and cultural changes in contemporary France, and as a precious testimony of the relation between the mental worlds of the rulers and the ruled.

French public opinion and the Indochina War. Poils and testimonies, Alain Ruscio. Unkike the Algerian war, the Indochina war did not really mobilize French public opinion ; the fact is well known. But only a study of opinion poils provides accurate data on the real scope of this relative indifférence, and an explanation of why advocates and opponents of the conflict never succeeded in getling massive approval. As the military commitment lasted and got bogged down, the army and the nation diverged, in the absence of any real motivation for the common man to approve a war whose stakes were not obvious.

The large French public works company, 1883-1974, Dominique Barjot. Between 1883 and 1974, the French public works industry went through periods contrasted growth without ever ceasing to contribute significantly to economic development, thanks in particular to remarkable success in foreign markets. This success was due to a strong core of large and medium-sized companies financially fragile but often directed by valuable technicians. Forced to innovate by the fierceness of compétition and the relatively high cost of production factors, they remained at the forefront of technical progress, especially for the construction of major works.

French reconstruction in the Saar, 1945-1950, Remi Baudouï. In occupying the Saar in July 1945, the French had not only an economic objective. They hoped to contribute to denazification by rebuilding the destroyed cities according to functionalist town planning and architectural principles. But while the group of architects appointed to carry out this job was convinced of the excellence of its mission, it conceived of it in an authoritarian way, without taking into account either the inhabitants' wishes or the advice of municipal councils. Torn between several decision-making bodies, cut off from unconsulted war victims, reconstruction policy a topic of political and national debate had failed barely four years after its inception. Archi- tecture preceded the 1955 referendum by which the Saar became German again.